Why do I have to go through White Palace?

[less than three]

Why is it even made into the game? What purpose it serves?
I spend hours on it in a span of few days and now got to the point where I can't progress further nor save progression so far. It feels like last bench was light years ago.

Yes, I know about "Hiveblood"+"Grubsong"+"Deep Focus"="Infinite Tries", but I already tried seems like infinite amount of tries and just can't get through one single spot. No matter how long I watch patterns, because I don't see the whole parts of the puzzle and getting through one single part takes like 50 tries, because the margin for error looks like non-existant. And if I screw up at second part well that is reset to the first part.

My wrist simply hurts right now from all the tension and I can't turn the game off.
This is stuff of nightmares. This part of the game singlehandedly made my impressions for the game from "GOTY2017 10/10" to "Worst game ever made".
I just can't get what is the point of doing this nightmare from game designer's stand point, lore-wise, etc.

[RocketPotatoL62]

Honestly in some ways I agree, the white palace, path of pain, or even grey mourner for that matter are things that simply shouldn't exist in this game, some people enjoy those though, I don't.

The platforming aspect was never too taxing, the furthest it would ever go would be the tight timing you need to pass the presses in crystal peaks... but White palace just takes it to an extreme that feels like a completely different game. If I wanted to play an unforgiving platformer, I'd play an unforgiving platformer, not hollow knight.

Though with enough patience and knowledge of the knight's abilities, paired with hiveblood and grubsong, white palace aint a problem. Believe it or not, there is a margin for error. I can think of a few occasions off the top of my head where I screwed up and managed to clutch out anyways.

Another thing is that the white palace is optional. Nobody is forcing you to go for the true ending. But I find it kind of strange that they would lock the true ending behind a set of obstacles that cater to a completely different set of skills compared to what the learning curve of the game leaves you with. It's almost as if they expect that you played something like super meat boy before.

Don't let the trial and error trash that is white palace taint your impression of the game itself, this is merely a fraction of the whole game. Once you beat it, you never have to experience it again.

I feel something like white palace/path of pain would be more justified if there was anything even remotely similar to it in other parts of the game. But, I am content with everything else that doesn't involve the pale king's spike bed. I wouldn't have it any other way.

[Angry Owl]

You're making it sound way worse than it actually is. While more difficult than other areas of the game, it's not even remotely impossible. For example, you get infinite tries (via hiveblood) and frequent checkpoints (flat surface). Aslo level designer(s) placed several shortcuts to staright up skip some sections.
It does look like you either lack patience or have little experience with tight platformers (think 8bit era). Look up guides or videos. It's probably best for you to skip the Path of Pain too.

[less than three]

Originally posted by Sonic_RocketPotatoL62:

Honestly in some ways I agree, the white palace, path of pain, or even grey mourner for that matter are things that simply shouldn't exist in this game, some people enjoy those though, I don't.

I've liked Gray Mourner quest and it felt like it belongs to the theme and style of the game.

Originally posted by Sonic_RocketPotatoL62:

...
I feel something like white palace/path of pain would be more justified if there was anything even remotely similar to it in other parts of the game. But, I am content with everything else that doesn't involve the pale king's spike bed. I wouldn't have it any other way.

There are some places with hard and long puzzle platforming like this (in Queens's Garden path to one of the Nailmasters; Crystal Peak, are few examples), but they are reasonable in terms of difficulty going through and are not taking hours trying to complete them.
They are hard, but have reasonable difficulty.

The White Palace on the other hand is going and going and going seems forever, and you can't just save and get a break, or go to somewhere else to fight some dream boss or whatever.
It is difficult, I got that, I went through one section, lit one bulb, went through another section, lit another bulb, pushed myself further through another section and lit yet another bulb. Maybe this should be enough to make a point, but nooo there is more and more and more.

I hate this game so much right now, because I have to push myself to play it, I can't save and get a break, I can't even turn off my PC, my wrist hurts and I can't believe this White Palace is part of the game I played through.
This part of the game gives nothing of value to the player, just pure frustration.

Is this is how it supposed to be, Team Cherry?

[RocketPotatoL62]

you could just leave the game running in the background while you take a break, that's kind of what original binding of isaac players had to do before there was a "continue" function in rebirth.

[less than three]

Originally posted by Angry Owl:

You're making it sound way worse than it actually is.
...

Well this is my experience.

Originally posted by Angry Owl:

...it's not even remotely impossible. For example, you get infinite tries (via hiveblood) and ...

I know about infinite tries, but with these infinite tries this whole challenge loosing it's point. This is why I started this thread.

[less than three]

I just went through two parts of the that particular section just to find out there is third part with flying enemies you have to pogo on right after you cancel your crystal heart flight. They all have to be done in one try. Thats it, no saving platforms in between them.
I now feel this should be fixed by a patch from devs to add at least one platform between these parts.
Screenshot

[RocketPotatoL62]

if you think that's bad, you should see the path of pain. There's a lot of long stretches without touching the ground.

[less than three]

Originally posted by Sonic_RocketPotatoL62:

if you think that's bad, you should see the path of pain. There's a lot of long stretches without touching the ground.

I see. So is this location where am I at right now is optional or not?

I feel I had enough of this nightmare, because my game runs minimized into background for a few hours now and it can't stay like that for a whole night. This is stupid.

[RocketPotatoL62]

White palace is only needed if you want to go for the true ending. However, there's pretty much no point to path of pain unless you want to experience all the content this game has to offer.

[less than three]

Originally posted by Sonic_RocketPotatoL62:

White palace is only needed if you want to go for the true ending. ...

I took Hornet's advice to take extra effort and also hint from The Seer about where to go next.
I got one part of white charm and hoped to get another, to get good ending or whatever. So this is why I went to White Palace...

[Edgy]

I actually really enjoyed the White Palace. It only took a couple of hours and I play with Mouse and Keyboard.My only problem is that the saws feel out of place with the rest of the game.The Parkour wasn't really that bad imo.

[less than three]

Ok, my game is totally screwed up now, because I can't progress further and can't cancel this nightmare and get out of this dream.
If I kill myself I just respawn on the bench within White Palace and I can't go back to the hub area with exit port.
This is the major game breaking flaw in my opinion, because in any other part of the game you are free to go anywhere else and do other things.
I wonder if this section of the game was rushed out without playtesting. Bullcrap.

[Carrier Pidgeons]

White Palace is probably the part of the game that got me most frustrated, especially since there are multiple sections where you need precise positioning and movement between layers of spikes. I never resorted to Hiveblood or anything, but I did make liberal use of Grubsong.

I actually don't remember ever having to cancel crystal heart + pogo. Mind taking a picture of where you were? I swear I did that pogo part differently.

[less than three]

Originally posted by Carrier Pidgeons:

...
I actually don't remember ever having to cancel crystal heart + pogo. Mind taking a picture of where you were? I swear I did that pogo part differently.

I can't SS at that location, because game doesn't register my key combination for taking SS when I hold Crystal Heart key so I don't fall into popping spears, and there is no platforms I could stand on. Even if I could, I now far from that location, after many retries I've managed to go back to hub area and escape from that nightmare. Going back is as hard as going forward.

I can describe how to get to that spot. You have to go from hub area through the elevator, after you unlock 2-bulb door. Then go through until you get to the Bench, and after that continue to go forward untill you get to 3-part puzzle. First will be wall sliding saw blade, then you have to Crystal Heart through small hole between spikes, then climb upwards through series of horizontally positioned popping spears, then you have to Crystal Heart again through small hole again and pogo on the passive indestructible bugs at the end to get to the platform above.

[less than three]

Originally posted by Carrier Pidgeons:

White Palace is probably the part of the game that got me most frustrated...

Yeah, and worst of all Game Developers made it this hard and incredibly long for the only purpose is to frustrate you.

There is similar sections in the game with puzzle platforming, but they are not taking hours and hours and hours to complete. I see no point in this section at all because they gave player and ability to "cheat" with charms to get infinite tries.

White Palace is also locking you from doing other things in the game if you get stuck in the middle of this nightmare. That is purely a bad design imo.